Hillary Clinton said late designer and friend Oscar de la Renta embodied the phrase that adorns U.S. postage stamps, "USA Forever," during an unveiling ceremony at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall.

(Published Thursday, Feb. 16, 2017)

Despite the cold weather, the latest set of postage stamps are about to make things haute.

On the final day of New York Fashion Week, the Oscar de la Renta fashion house hosted a ceremony at Grand Central Terminal's Vanderbilt Hall honoring its collaboration with the U.S. Postal Service on a series of postage stamps for 2017 commemorating the famed designer.

Wintour, sporting her trademark bob and bangs with a cranberry blazer, commemorated her old friend, fondly sharing the days she spent with him and his wife Annette at his home garden in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

"I admired and I adored him, he was a mentor to me, a guardian to my childrenand part of the fabric of my life," Wintour said. "His designs reflected his personality: optimistic and fun and sunny and romantic."

Dressed in a magenta pantsuit and a gold statement necklace, Clinton recalled moments she and her family shared with the Dominican designer, including a time she traveled to his home country for humanitarian work following a devastating hurricane.

"Anna was right. When you are a friend of Oscar's, you were a friend in good times and dark times," she said.

Clinton also noted that de la Renta was an immigrant, "and aren't we proud and grateful that he was?" The event was being held on a national "Day Without Immigrants" in which foreign-born Americans were staying home from work and school.

A single black-and-white stamp of the late designer's portrait is included in the collection, along with 10 other stamps that feature details from dresses and gowns designed by de la Renta.

De la Renta died in 2014 of complications from cancer at his home in Kent, Connecticut.

Oscar de la Renta: A Legendary Catwalk Career

The late fashion guru is the latest to get forever stamped by the U.S. Postal Service. Among those slated to get the stamp treatment in 2017 are author Henry David Thoreau, American painter Andrew Wyeth, and civil rights icon Dorothy Height.